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BLACK CILICE - Banished From Time LP

Banished From Time, the new album from prolific one-man Portuguese outfit Black Cilice, is painful to listen to, yet it evokes a deep emotional response. On the surface, this is raw black metal in the same vein as the first few Burzum records and Ulver’s Nattens Madrigal, but it’s so poorly recorded and so thoroughly drenched in reverb that it’s basically a sheer wall of white noise and anguished howls. Even by primitive black metal standards, it’s damn near unlistenable. But like the best black metal, there’s a certain point where the cacophony becomes hypnotic and a strange melodicism starts to bleed through, at which point the music takes on an almost ethereal quality. The word ‘haunting’ gets overused when discussing this type of music, but for Black Cilice the description is apt – Banished From Time is the sound of despondent wraiths and forlorn ghosts.